Monday, November 27, 2006

Artist Rafael Trelles, since the summer of 2004, has been working on an experimental graphic art project on walls, sidewalks and lamp-posts throughout San Juan, Puerto Rico. Using a pressurized water hose and plastic stencils, he engraves elaborate designs on years of dirt and grime that cover the concrete.

José Roca brought a documentary about Trelles' project, En concreto (gráfica urbana) by filmmaker Roberto Tito Otero to show us on a recent trip.

Monday, November 20, 2006

José Roca, the new artistic director for Philagrafika has been here this week and has introduced us to many new artists and projects which incorporate the printed image into their artistic practice and works.

One amazing use of the print is this online educational videogame - which uses imagery from linocuts animated with Flash animation.

Tropical America fuses the new world of video games to a compelling past through a journey to unravel the mysteries of the Americas. Developed in collaboration with Los Angeles artists, teachers, writers and high school students, the game features a bilingual, thematic gameplay, accompanied by an online database of educational resource materials, source texts and imagery.

Another artist that José presented this weekend was Betsabeé Romero who carves and etches car tires with images which she then rolls through sand, sugar or onto cloth. Sometimes the tires are put back onto cars and driven through paint leaving a printed trail as the car drives.

We will continue to upload artists and images from José's presentations with future posts.

Monday, November 06, 2006

The ultimate in portable art...Drive By Press. Part of the Prints Gawn Wild event in Brooklyn this past weekend, hosted by Cannonball Press, Joe Velasquez and Gregory Nanney drove in their portable press. Bringing art to the masses these two guys travel the country spreading the ink one stop at a time. Drive-By Press is a completely mobile printmaking studio built to promote the growth and democratization of art through printmaking.

Caitlin from Philagrafika here. I just spent a week touring New England and some amazing prints shows. First stop was at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum to see Wunderground: Providence 1995 to present. The curators, artists and collectors pulled out all the stops putting together both a poster show and an truly amazing interactive fun installation.

The poster show cover the walls of two galleries is a cluster of wonderful confusion and eye candy while giving me as an outsider a visual history of the recent history of this community. The vast quantity of line and color, political messages, local activism mixed with entertainment made me feel warm inside. You could feel the energy of this place, Providence radiating through these walls covered floor to ceiling with printed images. The artists who created these prints and posters have a style which you can see ebb and flow as the community of artists obviously enjoyed and learned and styles grew and stemmed like an amazing family tree of artists spread their vision.

The posters are not about fine editioning and the artists aren't concerned with signing or clean borders - some of my favorite looked like they were thrown together in an afternoon - but this form of art is about the message - an immediate thought communicating it to a community.

The next room was the delicious treat, Shangri-La-La-Land. This was the installation by many of the artists of the now defunct Fort Thunder. The show were curated by Judith Tannenbaum, Richard Brown Baker and Maya Allison. The artists include Mat Brinkman, Brian Chippendale, Jim Drain, Leif Goldberg, Jungil Hong, Xander Marro, Erin Rosenthal, Pippi Zornoza and Lu Heintz. I was lucky enough to meet some of these artists when they were in Philly for the Full Force Five show at Space 1026 - when Jungil Hong made an amazing psychedelic bb shooting range - and she made me weep inside at the beauty of what she did at the RISD show.

Entering the installation, visitors are greeted with "Welcome please enter and see the beginning of the end of everything, Shangri-La-La-Land. The artists each worked to create a utopian room full of animation, sound, interactivity and visual treats creating a cacophony of glee with myself, and my family (aunts, uncles and ma). Everyone played and shared as we discovered secret little art within the installation - like Xander Marro's temple which dominates the space - with puppet shows and animation housed within. Jungil Hong created a giant glowing jellyfish like sphere covered with screenprinted shopping bags creating a shimmery skin. For those bold enough to enter and be engulfed by the egg, you are treated to a terrarium garden of succulent plants.

Many of the artists are also involved with animation - and their were little treats like the animation of bats which mesmerized me.

Overall the installation is a visual treat! Full of wonderful ideas - and it is wonderful to see how the artists have evolved their styles and skills from the poster printed art and grew it into polished installation - which still gives a lovely sense of community.

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You can see some of the animations, music and art of the artists here at the Fort Thunder